AVOCADO SALAD: great for beginners needing a template; high fibre; heart healthy, budget friendly.

Bargain priced avocados: a delight for nearly spring...

Avocado Salad: a template for colourful, healthy
multi-textured mix of simple salad ingredients  

When food budgets are tight, we take our pleasures where we can.

Cut-price avocados, which seem to be in abundance in most supermarkets right now, is sure to be one of them.  

A great source of culinary delight, large supermarket avocados can be had for around £2.50 --  half the price of a perfect green grocer specimen. 

And they're are not just for guacamole or the ubiquitous sourdough toast with poached eggs.  They're brilliant in smoothies, soups, pilaffs and vegetable sides.

Since 67 posted How to...the Art of Avocados and everything you need to know in March 2024, supermarkets have jumped on the bandwagon.  Excellent avocadoes in various sizes and stages of ripness are everywhere.  

It's just as easy to find a firm but creamy avo that contrasts beautifully with crisp lettuce as it is to find a soft one for mashing onto avocado toast.  

This post's simple salad for a small household is a real treat, mouthwatering, delicious and satisfying.  

But it also offers a beginer's guide to creating the right proportion of ingredients for a thrilling salad.  It will turn you into a pro.  

Cost: £2-3, depending on the salad drawer

Feeds: 1 or 2

Ingreds:

Salad:

1/3-1/2 small crunchy lettuce like baby gem, or equivalent
2-3 inches/5-7 cm cucumber
1-2 handfuls washed baby tomatoes or 1-2 standard tomatoes
1/2 peeled ripe avocado
a few ounces of cold leftover meat or cooked prawns (opt)
Extras: (opt)
2-3 radishes, sliced thin
1 stick celery, washed, trimmed at top and bottom

lightly toasted pine nuts OR sunflower &/or pumpkin seeds

crumbled crispy bacon 

Dressing for 1, easily multiplied:

2 tbsp good olive oil

1 tbsp vinegar, pref basamic, OR white or red wine vinegar OR lemon or lime juice

1/2 tbsp Dijon, wholegrain or other mild mustard

1/2-1 small clove garlic, finely grated (opt but recommended)

1/8 tsp sugar or a dash of maple syrup (opt but recommended)

salt & pepper

Method:

1. Mix dressing ingredients in a small jar with a tight fitting lid (washed empty herb jars from M&S  are ideal here); shake vigorously until emulsified ( completely blended & thick); keep cool till needed 
2. Just before serving, separate lettuce leaves at the base, remove grotty bits of leaf or core, wash in a solution of 3/4 parts water & 1/4 part white vinegar; pat dry with paper towel.  Slice into 1/2in/2 cm pieces
3. Wash & peel cucumber but leave a space between each strip for a striped appearance; slice thinly at a slant  (see below)
4. Wash & halve baby tomatoes or cut whole tomatoes into small bite-size chunks; spray with olive oil, salt lightly; rest
5. Add the 3 items to the bottom of a good-sized bowl; mix loosely
6. Peel half an avocado (leaving the stone in the remaining half, painting with oil or lemon juice and covering tightly with cling film); vertically cut in 2 the remaining half; cut into med slices OR chop into generous-sized chunks; spread out on a board; sprinkle liberally with lemon juice to prevent discolouring.  Add to bowl.
7. Cut protein, if using, into bite sized chunks; add to bowl
8. Lightly mix with tongs, being careful not to break up the avocado
9. Vigorously shake dressing again; pour over enough to moisten but not overwhelm 
10. Dressing will keep in fridge 3-5 days

Comments:

'I do love a perfectly ripe avocado with a few shards of protein and the usual crisp lettuce, cucumber and fragrant tomatoes.  Bathed in a balsamic vinaigrette, it's first class.  Roll on spring and summer!'  Retired writer

Some ways of preparing salad veg

Tips:

If you liked this avocado recipe, you will also like: 

1. Mixed Salads, Perfectly Pretty: simple appealling salads
2. recipes for cooked avocado (surprisingly wonderful): 
   • Avocado Pilau: ambrosial, for slightly underripe avocado
   • Avocado Vichyssoise: almost carb free; warm or chilled

   
   

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Copyright: These salads have been designed by B M Lee/ Bright Sun Enterprises and may only be reproduced in home kitchens.  Not for commercial use.

PENSIONERS'/TWOSOMES' MAKE-IT-YOURSELF GIANT FISH FINGERS: easy, quick, wallet-friendly, low salt & preservatives

Everyone loves fish fingers, and they're even better and cheaper home-made...

first posted 1/23; updated 12/24

Easy-peasy fish fingers using unprocessed white fish & crisp cornflake coating
'...deliciously crispy; the fish was beautifully cooked' Taster

Coley is one of those fishes that is prized by the budget-conscious shopper. 

A member of the cod and haddock family with a similar nutrirtional profile, coley is less popular and much lower in price.   

Treated well, it tastes great.     

Coley is not necessarily frugal to buy, however., coming in packets of 6 portions.   A 552gm/19.5oz packet of 6 frozen coley portions is over £6, and although that's just a pound a portion, it could take a big chunk out of your protein budget.   Fresh filets are over £5 for a 400g/14oz packet. (Feb/23).  (A fish monger may provide lower prices for individual filets.)

67 likes coley portions for giant fish fingers; they're just the right size and easy to deal with - no fuss, no bother; the only thing you need is a very sharp knife.  

If you're using fresh white fish filets which are not at least a generous 1/2 inch/1cm+ thich, try layering them in a loaf pan and freezing them before slicing and battering (67 has not tested this method but the egg & crumb mix should hole the filets together.  OR you could make fish gougons instead of fish fingers.)

Giant fish fingers are great for using up end-of-the-packet cornflakes, polenta or breadcrumbs   

Cost: £2.50'ish (!2/24)

Makes: 4 large fingers; recipe multiplies easily

Ingredients:

2 defrosted Waitrose coley portions 

1/3 cup flour, well-seasoned with salt & pepper

1 egg beaten (or equiv milk or yoghurt)

1/2 cup crushed cornflakes (or polenta or fresh/purchased breadcrumbs)

Optional: lemon zest, parsley, chilli flakes

3-4 tbsp oil (sunflower or olive or a mixture)

Method: